A day in the life at Sundance.

St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) plays at the ASCAP Music Cafe in Park City.

Kind of  crazy day - so I think it proper not to describe it in chronological order. Though I will start with weather - it was perfect. In the afternoon Doug Blush (co-editor) and I caught St. Vincent at the Music Cafe on Main Street in Park City. My word, she was great. At times she was a soft voiced pixie, then she was down on the floor ripping it up on her guitar like she was in the NYC punk scene in the 1980s. She appears to have these crazy long fingers that allows her to have a very unique guitar style. Please, please catch her as she tours around.

Paul Mariano and Doug Blush make their way to the
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.

Our first stop of the day was a special high school screening of These Amazing Shadows at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City. There were about 450 kids from various high schools. Rather daunting audience. We were a bit skeptical they would get into TAS because so many of the films we focus on were created and released before they were born. How wrong we were. They were the most incredible audience. They clapped through the entire closing credits. During the show they would break out into applause when they saw a movie clip the liked, they asked great questions at the Q&A and one girl told us that our doc has changed her life because now she knows she wants to make movies as her life work. Crazy heavy stuff. 

Director Jennifer Phang at the HP Print Center in Park City.

Park City is such a small town and that means you run into people you know all the time. I stopped by the HP Print Center late in the day to pick-up some beautifully printed TAS posters. I was organizing the materials when I heard someone call my name and to my delight it was Jennifer Phang. She is a director who had her first feature screen at Sundance two years ago and she also appears in our doc. She told me about her next feature and how she is trying to figure out if it makes sense to shoot in Norway. Her story needs startling beautiful locations. She may, for budget considerations, opt to shoot in Canada. 

What to say about the above photo? Stopped by the New Frontier art/media installations. Lots of great stuff but I must go right to the most unusual and cool multi-media installation. The actor James Franco has done something that on the surface sounds quite strange but is wonderfully funny and wonderfully bizarre. Can I describe it and do it justice...probably not but here goes...you go into a room that has a old couch, a rug and some plastic plants. Projected on one wall is the first episode of the 1970s comedy Three's Company. James, with help from somebody, voices all the roles and even sings the opening credits theme song. He reads the script as written but in a deadpan voice - then sometimes in an emotionally exaggerated way that is out of place for the scene. He also throws in lines like, "Meanwhile, back at the Regal Beagle." The above shot shows the moment that Mrs. Roper (wife of the landlord who thinks Jack is gay - making it okay for him to share an apartment with Janet and Chrissy) figures out that Jack is not really gay because he gawks at the barmaids breasts. Hilarity ensues. The whole thing makes no sense but is quite fantastic.